Ho Down
By hooker or by crook: Regarding C.J. Janovy’s “Lights Out” (December 6): The real reason Plaza residents do not get police protection is because they do not have important crimes. You know — hookers. If hookers worked on the Plaza, area residents would get police protection.
Here is how it works: I witnessed an assault on 38th Street once. I called 911. No response. Recently reported a DWI, and thirty minutes later the cops showed up. The drunk driver was long gone. Now, call about a prostitute on your block, and within three minutes, 20-25 cops show up, just for one hooker.
Kansas City needs to decide what is more important: whores or a guy terrorizing his neighbors.
Name Withheld Upon Request
Kansas City, Missouri
Ciao and Then
That’s amore: Regarding Charles Ferruzza’s Kansas City Strip about Union Station (December 20): What has happened is history and needs to be laid to rest instead of brought up from the past to drop names of certain people because their last names end with an A, E, I, O or U. Some people in Kansas City think that all Italians are mobsters and are in the Mafia. That’s not true. Italians are not all bad people, but for those who aren’t Italian and didn’t grow up with Italians, there’s the concept that we’re all mobsters.
It’s time for people in Kansas City to mind their own business and live their own lives and stop the name dropping. Yes, I am Italian, and my great-grandparents came from Italy and lived in the once-beautiful historic Northeast Kansas City. Now it looks like a refugee camp and people have no respect for the area. The concept of being an Italian is all about family, friends, respect and amore. Tony Soprano will also agree that it’s the truth. Ciao.
Vincent DiCarlo
Kansas City, Missouri
Bar Fight
Barnes storming: I wish I could say I was shocked when I read Casey Logan’s article “It Only Takes a Spark” (January 3). But it is typical of Kansas City government. I moved to Kansas City one year ago from St. Louis and thought, “I’ll live downtown where the action is, plus I’ll be close to work.” Little did I know, it’s a ghost town after 5 p.m., and I have to drive to Midtown to buy eggs!
It is obvious to me that all of the plans Mayor Barnes has been hyping with her big press conferences have just been lip service. Someone (Mr. Gouddou, Spark Bar’s owner) actually takes an interest in downtown, however small a step you may think a 3 a.m. bar is, and he gets shot down by all the bureaucracy in this crazy city. Why does everything have to be so difficult? What’s the big deal to city council members if Mr. Gouddou’s bar stays open a little later?
Why do the Kempers care if there is a bar open an hour and a half later at night in “their” stretch of downtown? They are tucked away in their mansions far, far away from the dirty little mess of downtown at 3 a.m. What sort of vandalism are they worried will happen at 3 a.m. that won’t happen at 1:30 a.m.?
Perhaps Mayor Barnes should start showing us downtown residents some action instead of her drawings and proposals. A 3 a.m. bar is a small step, but it’s more than she’s shown us thus far. But as she told Mr. Gouddou, I guess that is not her department.
Good luck Mr. Gouddou! I’ll see you at the Spark Bar!
Gina Wake
Kansas City, Missouri
Afraid of the spark: Dear Mayor Kay Barnes and council members Bonnie Sue Cooper and Paul Danaher: I would like to discuss the rights of a single property owner, Tower Properties, and its ability to block any sort of growth within the downtown area. If you have read “It Only Takes a Spark” in the Pitch, you already have a firm grasp of the issue of which I am speaking.
This is an issue that the city council should address if it is really sincere in its quest to bring downtown back to life. For too long, the Kempers, Tower Properties and Commerce Bank have held too much control over the downtown area. Their recent actions against Spark Bar speak louder than words. Compounded by the fact that most of the individuals running and making decisions for these firms have heavy interests, both personal and financial, across the state line, this group can be viewed only as hostile to the revitalization of downtown.
No one property owner should have that much control over the future of the downtown of our city. Existing laws need to be re-evaluated so as to eliminate this sort of monopoly power.
I am in no way affiliated with Spark Bar. I am just a citizen who has watched the Kempers, Tower Properties and other major landholders downtown hold this city back from its potential for entirely too long. I feel that it is well past time that someone took a stand against these people and the fact that they consistently discourage growth in this city for nonsensical reasons while reaping the benefits of all of the opportunity that they manage to drive across the state line.
Name Withheld Upon Request
Gladstone
